1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to compositions for improving animal skin health and/or pelage quality. The invention also relates generally to methods for preparing such compositions, methods for using such compositions, articles of manufacture comprising such compositions, and means for communicating information about such compositions, methods, and articles of manufacture.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
Skin is the largest and most visible organ of the body and the anatomic and physiologic barrier between animal and environment. It provides protection from physical, chemical, and microbiologic injury, and its sensory components perceive heat, cold, pain, pruritus, touch, and pressure. Pelage is the hair, fur, or wool that covers an animal. Pelage is sometimes referred to as an animal's coat. Skin and pelage vary in quantity and quality among species, and among individuals within a species. Skin and pelage also vary from one area to another on the body and in accordance with age and sex.
Pelage is important in thermal insulation and sensory perception and as a barrier against chemical, physical, and microbial injury to the skin. Also, pelage is photoprotective. The pelage's ability to regulate body temperature correlates closely with its length, thickness, and density per unit area, and with the medullation of individual pelage fibers. Coat color also has some importance in thermal regulation, with light-colored coats being more efficient in hot, sunny weather. The glossiness of the pelage is important in reflecting sunlight.
Pelage such as hair does not grow continuously but rather in cycles, with each cycle consisting of a growing period (anagen), during which the follicle is actively producing hair, and a resting period (telogen), during which the hair is retained in the follicle as a dead hair that is subsequently lost. There is also a transitional period (catagen) between these two stages. The relative duration of the phases of the cycle varies with age, breed, sex, and the region of the body, and can be modified by a variety of physiologic and pathologic factors. The hair cycle, and thus the coat, are controlled by photoperiod, ambient temperature, nutrition, hormones, general state of health, genetics, and intrinsic factors such as, for example, growth factors and cytokines produced by the follicle, the dermal papilla, and other cells in the immediate environment (e.g., lymphocytes, macrophages, fibroblasts, and mast cells).
Because pelage is predominantly made of protein, nutrition has a profound effect on its quantity and quality. Poor nutrition may produce dull, dry, brittle, or thin pelage with or without pigmentary disturbances. Under conditions of ill health or generalized disease, anagen may be considerably shortened and a large percentage of body hairs may be in telogen at one time. Because telogen hairs tend to be more easily lost, the animal may shed excessively. Diseases may also lead to faulty formation of hair cuticle, which results in a dull, lusterless pelage. Severe illness or systemic stress may cause many hair follicles to enter synchronously and precipitously into telogen. Shedding of these hairs thus occurs simultaneously, often resulting in visible thinning of the coat or actual alopecia.
Because skin and pelage are important for an animals' health, there is a need for alternative compositions and methods for improving animal skin health and/or pelage quality.